


A single mistake

by vermicious_knid



Category: Real Person Fiction
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, I watched number 10 and it was a big mistake, I wrote this to deal with my feelings, Romance, historical fiction - Freeform, my poor heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 18:51:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17945174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vermicious_knid/pseuds/vermicious_knid





	1. Prologue

She had been in a terrible hurry that morning. But then, her parents would have argued that she was always a creature of movement, always in two rooms at once in order to catch every word that was said in any conversation. At six years old, this had been regarded as endearing – but at fourteen it was starting to aggravate most of the household.

 

But that day there was a special reason, for there was to be a picnic in the field at midday. It was the first one of the early summer, and games would be held. Her younger sisters were still milling about the nursery, getting scolded by the nurse for something or other.

 

Not that Eleanor didn’t need scolding herself – but it just wouldn’t take, and anyway she wouldn't stay in one place too long for the punishment to be dealt out – giving the nurse a headache with her constant chattering about anything from gout to philosophical tangents about ice that never thawed in spring.

 

”The girl is a punishment onto herself.” The nurse would mutter under her breath, making beds and in general trying her best with the other (much more comprehensible) sisters.

 

While waiting for the rest of her family to come downstairs (for it would not do to come to a picnic without) she kept staring at their front door, trying to see through the clouded glass plates to the green plains beyond it.

 

* * *

 

He came quite late, after they had all played cricket on the sloping hill (her team lost, and it made her brows look heavy on her face) and they were introduced very briefly, before he turned away in a flurry of discussion with two of the dukes present.

 

An hour or so later, after the pink cake had been consumed and the women present began discussing fabric patterns, Eleanor rose from the grass, barely damp, and retreated to sit a few paces away – with her cup of tea which was still deliciously full.

 

When she had finished her tea a minute later, she saw a yellow bird fly close overhead, and she followed its path with her eyes, turning around – losing the bird amongst the trees, instead finding herself looking at William Pitt (the younger).

 

He was evidently, not in pursuit of shooting pheasants or foxes like her father and his friends who had walked off like a battalion a short while ago. He was sitting near a huge bulking oak tree, reading from a small leatherbound book in his hands. In this light and place, he looked almost like a minister of the church. But no, he was the prime minister. It was difficult to tell.

 

He didn't look like any other adult she had ever seen. Thin and tall, eyes that looked too intense, pale skin that further enhanced every expression – he was almost like a beacon saying ”I am different here we are now please go away”.

 

Which is exactly why Eleanor couldn't resist coming over to speak to him. He didn’t seem that happy about the book anyway.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The same hurry was there in her speech, hurtling out of her mouth when she met him again five years later. She had learned to be still enough in formal company, but when he took her hand and said her name, her years being tutored seemed to slip through her fingers and she remembered that perfect summer day.

 

”I am hardly diminutive sir.” she said when he called her a child, and in the corner of her eye she saw her mother on the verge of a reprimand.

 

Well, she can keep them.

 

Even though she was taller now, William seemed ever taller still. She could, even though she was loathed to admit, understand why some of the ladies she knew thought of him as ugly, or eccentric. He was still the most unusual man she had ever met, but it wasn’t necessarily something unpleasant. Even though they didn’t talk about anything terribly important at the time, or even interesting – it was the things he didn’t say but could plainly be seen in his character that intrigued her.

* * *

 

”I object to this mission of yours.”

 

Of course he did. His debts were growing like weeds, and from what little she had already glanced from his documents (she had been standing in the doorway and then suddenly there at his shoulder) it looked like an interesting read to say the least.

 

”Are these all your ledgers?” she asked, but ignored him as he huffed, leaning against the fireplace in the room.

 

”Are you pretending not to hear me?” he asked, sounding more than a little irritated.

 

Eleanor nodded happily to herself.

 

”Yes, this looks like all of it. I shall open them up as soon as I arrive home later tonight.”

 

In response William had just sighed as she clutched them to her chest like a prize and begun to exit his personal study.

 

”And when shall I expect you back with a full report on this matter?” he asked, making her smile as she turned to face him. There was a teasing note to his voice, which clued her in that he was not put out as he looked.

 

”In a fortnight, unless I am called away to the north.”

 

He leapt back from the fireplace and looked suddenly more awake.

 

”Why so far away?” he asked quickly, which surprised her.

 

”We always visit my aunt at this time of year. Although I should be happy to go, it seems I lack my usual enthusiasm for the journey.”

 

While she had been talking, he had walked up to her and covered his hands over her smaller ones around the ledgers in her hands. His eyes were hooded as he looked down at her, never wavering. He could pin her to the floor with that look.

 

”Then stay. Go to this aunt some other time.”

 

”I’ll see what I can manage.” she said, sighing. But then she smiled in that cunning way she had, like there were fifty or more secrets hidden behind her eyes.


End file.
